I wanted to claim a triumph, but it is hard to get excited about forcing the recognition of facts on a fellow-company in the information business. Over the past 2 years my company has been receiving notifications from Dun & Bradstreet regarding a California outfit called Global Media Group whose credit paperwork, D&B claimed, was incomplete. I periodically would call the US business rating group and tell them that our firm has no link with GMG. We had a different taxpayer ID and a different state of incorporation and, indeed, a different D&B number. It never worked.

Meanwhile my company's rating was lowered showing we are risk over the next year of not paying our bills or going bankrupt. Moreover, the D&B entry said that Agorot Ltd d/b/a/ Global Investing was in the stockbroking business, which is untrue, and which we kept trying to correct.

Finally fed up with this state of affairs, I demanded the right to correct my company entry. This resulted in yet another farce, because our CPA (who does our accounts and taxes) works in Long Island's Massapequa. Inputting this into our file resulted in D&B saying I had used a dirty word. (I could not make up these magic realism episodes if I were writing a novel.)

In disgust I had my lawyer draft a firm letter to the rating agency, at $150 for his time. And I pursued the matter with a series of clerks with ever more exotic accents who actually run the site in the Philippines and Mexico and India, to judge from those whose accents I could guess. I was asked to tell if I knew anything about another company at our accommodation address (the local Mailboxes Etc.) as the Filipina supervisor's price for sending my company an apology for the ruin of my business rep.

Despite my knowing nothing about the other mailbox, I was promised that my corporate entry would be fixed. I am a believer in globalization but my own theory about D&B is that its data entry personnel are ignorant, ill-trained, and badly-managed. Another great name bites the dust.

Another triumph: I managed to unsubscribe from Facebook, which will take 14 business days for some reason. I am fed up with daily boring news from my daughter-in-law's publicity-made 16-year-old cousin Justine and others of that ilk and age bracket.

More follows starting with horrible and good news for our pharma shares in Israel and Britain, some notes about Canada companies, a high risk buy, and an update on Pakistan, plus some other news from Denmark. And plenty about the problems of tracking and trading stocks.

*The other shoe has dropped at GlaxoSmithKline, as Britain's Serious Fraud Office has opened a formal criminal investigation into GSK's commercial practices. This came in the wake of marketing scandals in the USA (under former management) and a massive bribery case in China, wyere GSK is accused of using travel agencies to pay cash to doctors and hospitals to sell its pills. But there also may be investigation of fraud, corruption, and bribery in other markets like Poland, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon. The SFO is an independent body under the UK Attorney-General. The head of marketing in China, a Briton, has been replaced and GSK has made long-term plans to cut back on the commissions its detail men collect, to cut their personal gain from corruptly boosted sales.

We own GSK for the yield, currently 4.66% based on today's sinking price, which was raised 5% since we bought in.

*Teva triumphed yesterday evening as the European Patent Office ruled that its Copaxone (glatimir acetate injection) multiple sclerosis drug was valid in a case brought in late 2012 by generics makers Synthon BV, Mylan, and another drug firm. The Teva EP 2177 528 patents run to 2025. The MS drug is a huge money spinner for TEVA and its US patent expiry has been appealed to the Supreme Court which will get around to this matter in the autumn. But the European Union ruling boosts Teva claims stateside. Meanwhile Teva is developing a 3x/wk rather than a daily regimen for the drug.

*Bombardier is suffering because of a preliminary jv with Russian state-owned conglomerate Rostec signed last summer. The deal is to make the Q400 plane in Ulyanovsk for Rostec to then lease 100 planes through 2 subs for ~$3.4 bn. Natch these talks are in limbo now and it is feared that BDRAF will not get enough orders to keep up Q400 production. It has 39 firm orders and 91 preliminary ones, according to CIBC. And of course its C-series planes are also having problems achieving lift-off now that Air Canada has deferred ordering new narrow-bodied aircraft. The first C-Series are now expected to be delivered only in H2 of 2015.

The delays are hurting family-controlled Bombardier, which now has net debt of US$4.57 bn, according to The Investment Reporter, 5.2x its last 12-mo cashflow of $882 bn, “significantly above our standard comfort zone of 2x or less.” However, the Canadian letter thinks the CRJ planes and railroad equipment can help stabilize finances. “Bombardier remains a buy for long-term gains and dividends”, the TIR letter writes.

*We followed TIR into buying CI Financial on the mistaken belief that the rest of the company would be bought by Bank of Nova Scotia which owns 36.8%. Instead, Scotiabank is planning to “monetize” its stake by sale or spinoff. CIFAF is down on the news. TIR now has reaffirmed its 'buy' on CI which I available “on the cheap”. At the end of Q1 assets under management at CI hit a new record at C$96.5 bn and they rose another C$1.8 bn to another record April 30. CIFAF in Q1 saw earnings rise over 22% y/y to C$98.5 mn, or 35 loony cents/sh. It raised its monthly dividend to 10 loony cents/sh, or C$1.20 per year. The yield is 3.6% and in my opinion the loony may rise again with commodity prices.

*Alibaba bought a 10% stake in the Singapore Post for S$312.5 mn. Meanwhile our Tencent (still not trackable or tradeable with e-trade, for years has been buying video games from South Korea big time. In March it bought a stake in CJ Games for $500 mn and signed up for Irish Candy Crush. Now Bloomberg writes that Tencent is looking for games in Japan, backing a rumor I picked up that it was sniffing at DeNA Group, DNACF. Tencent, listed in Hong Kong but HQ'd over the border in Shenzhen, uses its QQ messaging system to peddle games distributed via computers. Games account for about half (5 cents) of revenues but they accounted for as much as 80% in the prior 4 years. So new and exciting games are needed which Chinese in-house developers seem to have difficulty thinking up.

*Pure Technologies named a new CEO, Jack Elliott who will also sit on PPEHF's board. York, a Canadian municipality, will spend C$10.9 mn for water pipeline inspection by Pure under a new contract. Alas, their new regime means that I get 2 long e-mails every day from the new IR.

*Bavarian Nordic named a new British president, Paul Chaplin, PhD, a vaccine specialist. BVNRY.

*While Mark Hulbert thinks gold has further to fall, your editor averaged down in IamGold (IAG) at $3.1 this morning. Natch it fell further. Mark says the reduction of Ukraine risks has made gold vulnerable to lower prices. They don't ring a bell at the bottom.

*While India remains flat as attention turns to the challenges facing Modi's premiership, his handshake with Pakistan is proving popular on Karachi's stock exchange. Our XDB MSCI Pakistan Investment Fund (HK:3106) is up to $15.44 from the $15.3 we paid. Mark wrote to ask if I could tell him the cusip or sedol for that play but I had to refer him to Deutsche Bank. As I explained to him, it was the only accessible Pakistan Fund from a respectable fund manager. Mark runs Hulbert's Financial Digest for Dow Jones.